Over the years, I have developed a small collection of firearms. Some are worth a bit of money. As of now, I don't have a safe (I know, I know). The reason for this is I can't figure out what size I need. I look at the 40 gun safes and just can't see how you can fit 15 scoped rifles in there much less 40.

I have about all I need but I'm sure I'll add 5-6 more. I have 5 shotguns, 7 scoped rifles, scoped AR10, scoped AR 15, scoped Mini 14, and five handguns. Like I said I just don't see how that many guns can be fit into a 30-40 gun safe. Can the shelves normally be removed? Considering my collection, what size would be recommended for my needs? Thanks in advance for the help

Some safes have optional racks that will help store rifles more efficiently.

Whatever size you think you need, or will need, get one size bigger. For one thing, guns tend to multiply for some of us. For another thing, when you have a safe that protects against both burglary and fire, you start to find things other than guns that should go in there, such as wills, titles, and other paperwork.

Read the specs carefully. "20 guns" might mean ten rifles and ten pistols. Also check how long a rifle the safe will hold. My gun passion is traditional style muzzle loaders. I have two that will not fit in my safe.

I would buy the biggest you have room for that you can afford. I bought a 12 gun sentry safe just so I didn't have them scattered in hard cases and its pretty full with 6 long guns. The thing that really disappointed me was when I discovered that a full length shotgun (28" barrel) doesn't fit inside it unless you take the shelf out, or you tuck the barrel into a slot in the edge of the shelf which pretty much requires you to empty the shelf and remove it in order to get that gun out.
There are barrel slots for 12 guns along the sides and you could probably get them all in that way but it would be in a jumble and they would have to go in and come out in order. I think from now on I will use 50% as a rule of thumb and figure if nothing else that leaves a little room to grow.

In my experience "x guns" means half rifles half pistols or moaybe more pistols and just putting them in there as tight as you can. If you want them organized/accessible I think you will need at least double and probably more if they are scoped. If you are not moving I would consider a vault room(steel door, double block or such). I think it can be done cheaper than a good safe that can actually hold 40 guns in an organized matter and it will give you a whole lot more room. Safes aren't all that secure in reality.

i bought a safe, i thought i would be big enough. i now have 3 safes amd i might need more before im done.
do yourself a favor and find a safe you like and double or triple the size you think you need.

The scopes is what will kill you as far as capacity goes then followed close by the AR style rifles especially if you have the magazine in them. All my high powered rifles except one has 50mm objective lenses and they take up a lot of real estate. I honestly believe the way safe manufacturers get the gun capacity claim is buy using old single shot .410 shotguns. Even my rimfires fit fairly close together and only two of those are scoped. With your collection and what you're anticipating on getting especially with all the scoped rifles, I wouldn't go any smaller than a 39 gun capacity safe. If you have the money and more importantly, if you have the room, I'd pick a bigger safe. I wouldn't have been able to get a bigger one for where I was putting it but now I'm having to start contemplating where another one is going to go.

I bought the Hollon Republic 39 gun safe and I probably have room for 3-4 more long guns. I took out the small shelves to give me three bays for my long guns and you're correct, most safes are designed this way. I did add the middle shelf that my handguns are on as mine only came with one large shelf which is my top shelf you see. All shelves should be adjustable giving you some flexibility. I will say this, I wish I would have gone with a taller safe. As you can see in the pictures, I don't have much room on the top shelf due to a couple of my shotguns having long barrels. One barrel is a 32" 12 gauge magnum and the other is a 30" 10 gauge. This is the main reason I had to build a shelf to hold my handguns.

These pictures will hopefully give you an idea of how well a safe accomodates real world guns with scopes. I probably could pack them in a little tighter but then I'd risk safe dings. Worst case scenario, I could put the guns in padded cases (not gun socks) and remove the notched barrel shelf and really pack the long guns in tight. But then it wouldn't be as much fun when I open the safe door !

I agree with the sentiment that you get a size or two bigger than you think you need. If you don't have any other "normal" safes, think about what else you might need to place in it. When we leave town, the computer CPU boxes, the removable hard drives, the wife's jewelry, checkbooks, and other small pilferable valuables go in it as well. Something worth considering anyway.

__________________
Cheers,
Greg “At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.” — P.J. O’Rourke

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